


Crescendo

by TK_DuVeraun



Series: Reflections (OT-era) [2]
Category: Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Bad Force Lore, Canon is more like guidelines, Domestic Forcer Life, Drama, Everyone in space is pro choice fight me, F/M, Family Feels, Implied/Referenced Torture, Pregnancy, Sith doing Sith things, Space Pirates, me hearties yo ho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22808944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TK_DuVeraun/pseuds/TK_DuVeraun
Summary: Sequel toTrust Me!Reading required.Two years after unlocking the Vault on Bogano, Cal and Cass are almost done seeing to the children on Cordova's list. Unfortunately, dealing with so many families, most of whom can't bear to be parted from their children, has torn gashes in her emotions. She's forced to confront her own blood.And someone else that's interested in it.
Relationships: Cal Kestis/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Reflections (OT-era) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1639093
Comments: 20
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yo, hey welcome!
> 
> A few things:
> 
> 1) Read [Trust Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22303708) first.
> 
> 2) There won't be daily updates. I'm busy with other stuff.

Leoet was a mix of modern buildings and abandoned construction sites, breaking the skyline like a broken rib cage. The dirt ball had responded well to the simulated atmosphere, not so much to the terraforming with its basic soil and low carbon levels. It looked more like a burned-out, strip-mined husk of a world than a Republic-turned-Imperial colony. 

“Brace yourself for when we disembark,” Cass said. Her hair had finally regrown from her duel with Malicos back on Dathomir and nearly two years of real sleep had softened the lines of her face. Somewhat. She’d never be particularly soft and welcoming, but at least she didn’t look perpetually angry anymore. “This world will feel dead and empty.”

Cal stretched his legs, pushing back into the pilot’s seat. Their ship, the Intrepid, was a blackmarket ship Greez found them, and bargained for after he realized they were both hopeless. From the outside, it looked like a bucket of bolts held together with plasteel sealant and dreams, but the inside was plush and luxuriant. Enough so that Cal had trouble adjusting to the squishy furnishings and silent engines. He raised his arms over his head, holding his hands flat so he didn’t accidentally flip any of the toggles. “I’m glad this is the last one. I’m ready to start that droid shop.”

“I knew the idea would grow on you,” Cass said. She wasn’t smiling at him, but her expression was soft enough he would get the idea. “Shall we split up and make quicker work of it?”

“Yeah, I’ll take…” Cal checked the list on his datapad. “Tsavong Ruellis. Which leaves you Nyssa DeLuc.” He pulled a datachit out of his jacket and held it up to her. “Here’s the training exercises and stuff. I’ll call you if I get in any trouble and we’ll meet up back here tonight?”

Cass tucked the datachit away and leaned over to kiss his forehead. She rolled her eyes at the goofy grin he gave her. “Yes. I will pack you an auxiliary kit while you land. Given the state of this world, I would not be surprised if one or both of the children are in poor health.”

“At least these are both residential addresses. We’re pretty much out of places to put kids.”

With her back to him, it was easy not to respond. Easy to hide the thick knot of fear that tightens around her throat. Her father had never given any thought to child-carrying. He lacked the necessary biology and after Cass’ creation had lost all interest in bringing another child to life. He hadn’t known to warn Cass she would feel the curl of life low in her abdomen. Not that the child itself was the problem. No, she didn’t fear a bundle of cells barely separate enough to have their own Force signature.

Cal’s reaction once she told him or he noticed for himself was a similar non-issue. They had discussed the possibility before becoming intimate and agreed that with their plan to run a shop quietly and out of danger, having a child, should probability will it, would be fine. Well, Cass had said it was fine. Cal had been on the edge of happy tears, nuzzling her cheek as if that would somehow hasten the process. Even several reminders that probability was unkind hadn’t been enough to damper his happiness. 

No, the fear came from her blood, as it always did. Yes, Cass had ripped the blood curses from her flesh and, disastrously, her Force, but if it were so easy to be free, surely the Sa’alle line would have ended sooner. She refused to believe she was the first heir in three thousand years to rebel, which meant there was a good chance her child would be born with the blood curses. Born tongueless and mute with every rebellion repaid in pain. Cass had good control over her mind; it was an integral part of her father’s gift, but when the slightest weakness, the single instant of frustration over a child that wouldn’t stop crying would turn into staggering pain for that child?

She left those thoughts on the Intrepid as she and Cal disembarked. Implantation was no guarantee of a viable pregnancy. Though she loathed the very idea of it, she would have to return to Dromund Kaas and gather what information she could from the estate. There was no reason to worry about it yet. She parted with Cal at the spaceport, accepting his doting with silent grace. He was going to be simply insufferable if it stuck. 

The droid piloting her speeder was chatty. She wanted to fry it with a jolt of Force lightning, but at least it kept her mind off other thoughts. Nyssa DeLuc lived in the middle of a high rise building in the third circle of the city. As Cass took the lift to the correct floor, something niggled at the back of her mind. She was as lacking in Force Intuition as her father, which was to say, as oblivious to forewarning as a Forceblind, so she wasn’t Sensing anything coming. It was something else. Something practical, plain, if not simple. When she lifted her hand to knock on the door, it struck her: everything about the location was average. Average cost, average location, average appearance. Too perfectly average. She knocked.

The door opened and everything made sense in an instant, like a novel shoved into her head at once. Nyssa DeLuc lived an average life in an average flat with average parents and non-descript everything in hopes that no one would discover her gift. She undoubtedly scored average marks in her average school, had a single average friend at whose house she slept over an average amount. Anything and everything to make the girl as boring as possible. The last thing her parents wanted was for her to draw attention. The last thing they wanted was for her to be taken away.

Because standing before her, looking guarded and more than ready to slam the door in her face was Cal’s mirror image. Well, the man looked older and was platinum blond instead of a red head, but there wasn’t a doubt in Cass’ mind as to the man’s identity. In the space between blinks, she shoved everything aside. “Hello, I am here on a matter concerning your child. I have reason to believe she is in danger.”

“No.” The man tried to slam the door, using more of his strength when she stopped it with a casual brush of her hand.

“I have no intention of taking her from you. You need a better means of hiding. If I found you, so, too, could the Inquisitors.” She took a deep breath. “But this is not a conversation to be had in the hallway.”

Cal’s father stared at her, mouth puckered like he’d bitten into a particularly sour mauna fruit. With a grunt, he backed out of the way so Cass could enter. The inside of the flat was just as average as the building, though Cass could feel traces of Force use as she was directed to the sofa. A red-haired woman held a whispered conference with Cal’s father and then both sat on chairs adjacent to the sofa.

“Get on with it, then.”

“I am Cassandra Aethran. I came into possession of a list of Force Sensitive children made by a now-dead Jedi Seeker. You are the last on the list and the only ones to be aware of your child’s gift. That makes this conversation easier.” To quell the urge to stare, Cass looked around the flat. There were a few scattered pictures of Nyssa, but no sign of an older brother.

Cal’s mother spoke first, her hand on her husband’s knee to calm him. “We are Tahiri and Daos DeLuc. The Jedi took our son. We were… we  _ are _ devastated. We changed our names and moved here to start a new life. Eventually, we healed enough to have Nyssa, but then… her gift…”

“I understand. It cannot have been easy to hear that the Jedi were slaughtered as traitors, knowing they had your child.”

“It’s what they deserved, but they had no right to take our boy down with them,” Daos said.

“For now, at least, the Jedi Order is no more. It is time to assure your daughter’s safety.” Cass held out the datachit. “This contains instructions on how to train her gift. Training it in the proper environment will greatly lessen the chances of an accidental outburst that could reveal her gift. If you plan to stay here, there are some protections I can add that will… Let us say, lower the volume of her gift. Make it harder for her to be found here.”

“Are they really gone? All of them?” Tahiri asked. “Is there no chance that our son-” Her voice broke on the last word and she clung to her husband’s arm.

“Some scattered Jedi yet live. That is how I acquired the list. If I happen to meet your son, I will tell him that you are here.”

“Thank you. That’s all we can ask.”

“His name is Cal. Cal Kestis.”


	2. Chapter 2

Cass let the plush couch on the Intrepid suck her in. Her visit with the DeLucs, the _Kestises,_ had been quick. How simple when she didn’t have to explain what the Force was or why the Jedi were no safer than the Inquisitors. She hadn’t told them that yes, Cal was alive, yes, she could put them in contact, no he wasn’t drowned in Jedi dogma. While she couldn’t imagine a scenario in which Cal wouldn’t want to see his family, he deserved the choice. Family had never meant anything to Cass, just torture in the day and whispers in the night, but the encounter still left a bitter taste down the back of her throat.

She was happy for him, her frustration at the injustice aimed at the Force or fate or whatever felt it could dictate her life, but she still wished that someone else had the duty of telling Cal about his family. She held a blanket like it would protect her from her own feelings. It was a small relief that she was no longer concerned with the bundle of cells that might one day be a child if they were lucky. Cass dozed off, wrung out and worn smooth from too many emotions.

Cal boarding the ship didn’t even register. Her Force had long accepted him as safe and she was too close to sleep to have heard the airlock. He knelt on the couch next to her and kissed the top of her head before pulling her into his arms. “That bad?”

“Sit.” She pushed him down until he was seated and then peeled off the blanket. She used the Force to summon her hairbrush and then worked through the tangles made from cocooning. 

“ _That_ bad?” Cal asked.

She tied up her hair and then pulled both of his hands into her lap. “The parents were particularly easy to deal with. They had an older child taken by the Jedi before the Clone Wars. They desperately hoped that he had somehow survived the Purge.”

Cal squeezed her hands. “Yeah, that’s pretty awful. Maybe he did, though? We can have Cere come see them. Not that finding out your child is an Inquisitor is great news, but Trilla’s doing well… That’s not a good face. Did you just tell them he was dead?”

The words were heavy and resisted being pulled up from her gut, but Cass took a breath breath and forced them into the space between them. “After their son was taken, they changed their names to DeLuc. From Kestis.”

Cal’s eyebrows raised and lowered several times. His jaw moved, but no sound came out. He touched her shoulders with shaking hands, as if applying any real pressure would take the words back. “What?”

“I knew from the moment the door opened. Your resemblance to your father is striking.”

He stared at her lap and his fingers dug into her shoulder blades. “My p-parents. I have a family. They’ve been looking for me.”

“Yes. Neither of your parents are Force Sensitive, but your sister shares your gift of psychometry. My speculation is that you have kiffar blood on both sides that came together in both of you.” She put her hands on his cheeks and tilted his face up. “I told them only that if I should meet their son, I would inform him that they wanted to meet. What happens now is your choice.”

He pressed his under her chin and wrapped his arms tightly around her back. His chest heaved with silent sobs as he tried to control his emotions. Cass stroked his hair and whispered gentle reassurances. Giving comfort was still foreign to her, but she did her best, wrapping him in soothing tendrils of Force. His pain was like shards of glass flying out in every direction. All she could do was collect them with bleeding hands and set them in a pile to be reconstructed later.

Cal sniffed loudly. “It’s so selfish of me to be like this when your family-”

“None of that, Cal. It is a manka to tauntaun comparison. Those who created you need not matter, but it is not a failing if they do.”

“Created me,” Cal said with a laugh. “After all these years, they still think about me.” He moved closer and pressed their cheeks together. “What do I do, Cass?”

“I think it would make all of you very happy if you met them.” She kissed him. “I would like for you to have that.”

“Are you sure?”

“As long as they do not… touch me, I will be fine.”

Cal straightened and held her hand. “You don’t have to come. I know it’ll be hard on you.”

“It is not difficult for me to see you happy.”

“I love you, Cass.”

“And I, you.”

\---

It was the middle of the night when Cal and Cass arrived at the average flat the not-so-average DeLucs lived in. He knocked twice, neither time hard enough to wake even the most paranoid Sith. Before he could spiral into depression that it was a sign that he wasn’t meant to see his family, Cass prodded his parents’ minds in the Force. They very much wanted to check the door, she convinced them with all of the gentleness she could.

She held Cal’s hand through the first round of tears and awkward introductions before ushering everyone inside lest the neighbors wake and ask questions. They tried to bring Cass into the hugs, Cal had more than enough of himself to stop them and protect her against questions. There was no reason to explain why Cass couldn’t bear a mother’s touch. When they gathered in the living room, she hid in the kitchen and made tea because the ritual was more calming than the drink itself. She let Cal’s happiness brush against her mental barriers and soothe away the aches that family always brought to the scars that lingered even after the Life Tree’s sap healed her on Kashyyyk.

Cal came to her several times, needing her steady reassurance that it was real, that he was okay. She dried his tears and kissed his cheeks and just _held_ him until he could face his emotions again after a murmured, but no less meaningful ‘I love you.’ She drank two pots of tea, more for something to focus on than any real desire to drink. At dawn, Nyssa dragged her feet into the kitchen, red hair that was actually orange sticking in every direction and with the same sleep-numb expression that Cal wore every morning.

She held out a plush tooka by one of its back legs. “For you.”

Cass set down her teacup and took the toy. Nyssa was past the age of simply handing objects to people to see how they would react. Which meant something other than childish curiosity prompted the gift. Cass looked the animal over. It was missing an eye and the fabric was worn down in places. The leg Nyssa had carried it by had been reattached at least once. Old, well-loved, but overall uninteresting. “Thank you.”

“Everyone needs one.” The girl dragged her feet out and into the living room after her comment, completely unaware of how Cass had stiffened and braced herself in the Force. 

Her mental defenses were second to none, had been since the death of her father. There was no possible way the girl had been able to see her past. And for such an obscure thing… The girl’s Intuition was either perilously strong or capricious to the point of uselessness. It was good that Nyssa was Cal’s sister for she would certainly need more advanced training than was outlined in the datachit.

Cass sighed and made another pot of tea.


	3. Chapter 3

The days wore heavily on Cass. In addition to the barrage of… family, she had to suffer from the Force desert that was Leoet. She alternated between loitering in the city-center to soak up the ambient Force and constructing dampeners around the DeLucs’ flat. They were fond of their new surname, but equally fond of Cal keeping Kestis. The inconsistency was enough to give Cass a headache, even if she understood it from a psychological standpoint. While Cal taught his little sister the finer points of psychometry, Cass drove a speeder into the depths of the actual desert and created fake Force signatures. 

In a strange way, drawing the sigils in the dirt and dribbling womp rat blood in just the right places was relaxing. They would keep any Inquisitors on a ghhhk hunt long enough for Nyssa and Tsavong to get off world. Assuming their Intuition didn’t warn them first. Cass had never put much stock in Force Intuition, since neither she nor either of her parents had it. Her father postulated that those with their gift for mind-manipulation were simply too ‘mentally busy’ to register Intuition. As for her mother, she was too corrupted to Sense much outside of her own sadistic goals.

All in all, she was more than happy to leave Leoet. Even Cal was content to go, exhausted from emotional overload and content with his new ability to contact them whenever he wished. At least, once Cere and Trilla properly encrypted their holoterminal. Back on the Intrepid, Cass and Cal laid in their bed, letting the soft duvet swallow them up. 

“I’m so tired,” Cal whined. “How did I ever manage working double shifts as a scrapper?”

Cass had a cutting comment about the Jedi, but let it stay only in her mind. She brushed his hair out of his face. “It is a different kind of work.”

“Yeah, I know.” He rolled closer and kissed both of her cheeks and then the tip of her nose. “I noticed you didn’t set the autopilot. Having second thoughts about Balmorra?”

“No. I still believe that is the best place for our shop.”

“Our shop.” He grinned and hugged her.

“Yes, dear.” Cass couldn’t find it in her to be annoyed at the interruption. He was far too sweet and genuine for her. “You can go to Balmorra now, but I must travel to Dromund Kaas.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Cal, Dromund Kaas is-”

“Where you’re from, right? You mentioned it before.” He picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles. “It must be… I don’t know, the worst parts of Dathomir and Leoet combined, right? And absolutely crawling with Imperial soldiers. I want to be there with you, no matter how bad it is.” 

“You did not even ask why I must go there.”

“It doesn’t matter. I love you and I know that’s the last place in the galaxy you want to go, so whatever the reason is, it’s horrible and necessary.”

Cass had to close her eyes against the earnest light in his eyes. It was too much, he was too much sometimes. The pureness of his feelings wrapped around her heart and squeezed tight. “I ripped the curses from my body and my Force, but there is a chance it remains in my blood. My uncle was not cursed, but if he had a daughter, she would be cursed.”

He brushed the pads of his fingers over her cheek. “You’re worried about our children. Cass-” He cut himself off with a pained sound and pulled her tight against his body. “I know I shouldn’t be happy about this, but you always seemed so disinterested when we talked about it. To know that you’re doing this for them… It means so much to me.”

“I know.”

“Will we be safe there?”

“No, but if you follow my instructions precisely, it will be no more dangerous than anywhere else in the galaxy.” She opened her eyes and stared into his. “The estate itself may be too much for you, but I would not try to dissuade you.”

“It’ll be fine. After you muffle my-”

She put a single finger over his lips. “It is worse than you could ever imagine.”

\---

Despite Cass’ copious warnings, Cal felt landing on Dromund Kaas like a punch to the gut. Cass stood behind his seat and rubbed his back as he took deep breaths and struggled to push away the pure evil soaked into the planet. Cass wanted to shield him, to wrap her arms and Force around him until he couldn’t feel anything else, but once they reached the Sa’alle estate, she would need all of her Force and concentration for her work.

“I’m okay. I’ve got this.” Cal’s stood, wrapped up in his own focus. He smoothed down the fine fabric of his robes. He looked at her sheepishly. “I still feel silly in these.”

“In all fairness, only silly people wear them.” She adjusted his sash and repinned his brooch so that it hung properly. “Kaasian nobility has always been a joke in light of the Sith Citadel.” She tilted her head as she examined his appearance. “It still stands, the Citadel. My family has an office there, though without the marks I would be unable to enter.”

“Do you need anything from it?” Cal asked.

Cass dropped her hands. “No. It has not been opened in millenia. When I said marks, I meant the full ones.”

“What do you mean?”

She gestured to her face. “You saw them. They only covered half of my face. Long, long ago my bloodline was severed in twain. Half of the marks and power staying with Sa’alle and the rest going to Hyal. That office in the Citadel is the least of things we lost.”

“No wonder you’re interested in Force history. Your family has enough of its own to fill an entire archive station. Nevermind everything from your father’s side of the family.”

“I never thought of it that way. To me, it is less history and more just the way of things. I cannot remember ever learning these things. It is as if I have always known them.” She took a deep breath. “I know it is foolish to hate that woman and yet have such attachment to her bloodline when our forebearers were all of her ilk, but here we are.”

“I don’t think it’s foolish. You’re always telling me that it’s easier to hate things we’ve personally felt. I mean, I agreed with you that the way the Jedi do things is wrong, but I didn’t… dislike them, not really, not until I talked to my parents. Not until I could  _ feel _ their grief and how much it cost them to lose me. Besides, they might have left things behind that could help us. Probably not with the shop, but…”

“Thank you for coming with me. You have made this trial bearable.”

“Aww, you could’ve done it without me. You’re amazing.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Cal Kestis.”

He laughed, finally able to shrug off the mental miasma of Dromund Kaas. He took her face in both of his hands and kissed her. “That’s the real reason you won’t let me take your surname. It’ll lose some of the gravitas when you fullname me if you did.”

“You are a ridiculous man.”

“Your ridiculous husband.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience regarding the upload schedule! As I said, I have Things On The Go™
> 
> Warning for this and the following chapters: Sith Doing Sith Things. Cass' family was cartoonishly evil.

Dromund Kaas transformed Cass. By the time the hissing from the airlock petered out, she stood differently: the angle of her mouth, the tilt of her shoulders, the set of her eyes. Her Sith marks were painted on in black with a sharp wing covering the other side of her face. From the center of it, her eyes glowed orange with a ring of red around the pupils. Her robes trailed on the ground behind her as she led Cal through the spaceport, heedless of the expensive silver lining. Cuts in the design revealed blood-red velvet instead of skin. Her hair was held up by a fan of needle-sharp pins that glittered under the overhead lights.

She neither showed ID, nor slowed as she passed the customs agents with her head held high. All around them, uniformed people bowed, knelt, averted their eyes or some combination of the three. But her presentation was completely genuine, all of her Force held tight in her core where it couldn’t be Sensed. The people of Kaas City feared what she represented, even if they believed the lie that she was as Blind as they. Cal shuffled a few feet behind her. His poor attempt at acting fearful was, thankfully, unnoticed in Cass’ wake. 

Between the concrete buildings and the rain, Kaas City was grey and dreary. In her full regalia, Cass stood out like a beacon of everything to be feared in the Empire. No one dared speak to her when she casually ordered a private speeder, showing too many teeth and boring her red eyes into theirs. As much as it was a facade, the play felt comfortable, familiar, cloying, like the best spice credits could afford. Even knowing the cruelty that created it, Cass let herself sink into the role. The Sa’alle estate would not be kind to a soft heart.

“Are you alright?” Cal asked once they were in the privacy of the speeder.

Cass didn’t answer immediately, instead watching through the windows as the city sped by. “It frightens me how easy it is to wear the mask. Even knowing it was molded in blood and forged by torment…” She shook her head. “My father was never a Sith, but he was cruel. Kindness breeds too many questions, he said. What others think of you, what they feel, is irrelevant in the face of their actions and we can only continue to do our work if we are safe and hidden.”

Cal frowned. “What work? Preserving the history of your ancestral homeworld?”

Cass could see her own reflection in the window, staring back with all of her sharp lines. “No, he was working on something else. The thing he died for. I wish I knew.”

“We can find out. Go back to Ilum and examine the things in the workshop. If you know where he was living, I can get even more out of his personal effects.”

With her full Imperial regalia, a smile looked unnatural and too saccharine on her face, but Cass tried to smile. “I do not. And I dare say I will have enough to occupy me once we leave the estate.”

Though Kaas City had grown to encompass most of the surrounding jungle, the areas around and between the old Sith estates resisted modern expansion. Instead of fences, lines of runes drawn in blood marked the ancient property lines. Cass found it strange to think of them as ancient. The first Sa’alle may as well have been her great grandfather, for how much she knew of him, for when her house was founded it was egalitarian and not the strict matriarchy to which she was born. Perhaps that was why she felt the weight of her ancestors' sins cut into her back.

“The way is really clear for being this far out of the city,” Cal said.

“You will understand once we arrive.”

They sat in the speeder another hour, during which Cal was oblivious to the Force lines that marked off the territories. Outside the Sa’alle grounds, the speeder stopped: the droid programmed to remain a safe distance away. Cass almost laughed when Cal cursed on exiting.

“We’re not outside the city at all! It was built around us!”

“Indeed. Even once Darth Bane instituted the Rule of Two the old Sith lines refused to give up their land.” She took both of his hands in hers. “It is of critical importance that you follow my instructions precisely. The wards on the grounds cannot be deactivated or modified. You will be assaulted and there is nothing I can do to protect you.”

“Well, at least you aren’t asking me to stay behind.” He raised their hands and kissed her gloved knuckles. “I promise I’ll do exactly as you say.”

“Ignore everything you see and hear. Walk straight until your heart feels as if it will burst, then kneel. Count to seven, then stand, turn directly toward your left and walk until you hit a wall. Put a hand on the wall where your face would be and then repeat the following.” The Ancient Sith password flowed from her mouth like a river of blood, staining the air between them with fell energy.

“Wow, your ancestors weren’t messing around. Does that mean anything as ominous as it sounds?”

“It translates, roughly, to: I know the risks; should I die on my head it lay.”

“Strangely poetic.”

“The original is far more graphic about the risks.”

“I imagine. Alright, what comes after the password?”

“Nothing. You will suddenly find yourself at the main entrance. It will be disorienting, but I cannot recommend closing your eyes.” She pulled his face down and kissed his forehead. “I will be waiting for you there.”

Cal looked over the grounds. “It looks like… such a nice field. Like a manor on Alderaan or something. What’s it going to look like when I cross the boundary line?”

“I have not the faintest idea. All my father said was that he could not have crafted a more-perfect defense if he tried.”

“Alright, well… After you.”

Cass entered her ancestral home without further hesitation. She feared her conviction would fail if she saw his body contorted with the horrors of the grounds. She struggled as it was, with the depth of corrupted Force under her feet. It flowed beneath the grounds like a river of acrid blood. The manor house was little better. While it was insulated against the ancient spells, the walls and ceiling carried their own enchantments, most with wills of their own. She couldn’t disable all of the internal wards from the main entrance, but enough that Cal would be able to breathe.

After five minutes that lasted an eternity, Cal was gasping in her arms. She wiped the tears off his cheeks and checked him for injuries, though she found none. There had been a chance that he would bite off his tongue and either choke on his own blood or fail to speak the password clearly enough. “I am sorry, dear one.”

“Hah, that? That was nothing. I’m fine. Completely fine.”

“Come, we will have tea in the servants’ kitchen and recover.”

He laughed with more than one foot over the line into hysterical. “This place has servants? Servants work here?”

“They did before I killed that woman.” She pulled his arm over her shoulders and walked him through the servants’ passage to the back of the manor. “Having paid servants instead of slaves was a way to stand apart from the other families. A show of power and wealth. They had to be brought frozen in carbonite.”

“I know you said everything about your past is terrible, but this is  _ really _ terrible.”

“Harden your heart. There is worse to come.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment and let me know what you think! I love Sith horrors :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hello, okay, yes.
> 
> If you are sensitive to disturbing content, specifically child abuse or torture, please, _please_ practice self-care while reading this chapter. 
> 
> I do not write torture porn. Most of the horrors are implied. This chapter is very much still rated T, however, I am not so naive as to pretend that this content isn't triggering and painful. If you reach the end of this section and feel I have overwarned for it, well, far better than the reverse.

The Sa’alle manor hummed with the Force like a Fury with engines set to maximum. That the wards and spells responded to her meant that the property recognized something about her, despite ripping the curses out. She refused to let the fear win. The manor outdated the curses by several hundred years and that meant something, even with the three millennia in between. Forcers were lazy, she knew that from her studies. If they could incorporate their new ideas into old spells they would. The manor’s obedience didn’t mean her child would be cursed.

Cal traced the rim of his teacup, face twisted in concentration as he kept the ill-will of the manor at bay. “This is always the strangest thing about wreck and abandoned buildings. I know you only left this place a few years ago, but the tea’s still good, kriff, the _cream_ was still good. I scrapped a medship once. Morgue was full of perfect corpses. It was awful. All Clone Troopers, too. I had nightmares for weeks.”

“If you need to retreat here, I will not think less of you. While that woman was terrible, she was far from the worst of my family. There is no telling what your psychometry will pick up.” Cass was grateful her own memory remained dormant. Perhaps it was because she spent so little time in these parts of the manor and she was about to walk face-first into her own nightmares, but she instead leaned on her mental control. That woman hadn’t broken her when she was alive, the manor wouldn’t break her now.

“Do you want to burn it down when we leave? That’s always cathartic in holofilms.” Cal smiled, even though his face was pulled-tight with strain.

“Would that we could. It would take a lifetime to untangle the wards.” Cass finished her tea and stood. Beneath the floor, she could feel the past calling. “I am going below to the lab.”

Cal stood so abruptly that the table shook, fragile ceramic letting out a chorus of protests. “Alright. After you.”

The manor would have been beautiful, if not for the choking Force. The floors were a rich orange and white marble from Voss -- a world Cass only knew from its prescient Force users. The doors and trimming were dark jungle wood from the depths of Dromund Kaas’ long-gone forests. Paintings, not holoimages, lined the walls: gorgeous, lush landscapes of planets before the Sa’alle forces stripped them of their resources. 

The door leading below looked not different from any other off the main hall, with its rich wood and gilded fixings. Cass closed her eyes and took a breath. She felt her face fall into a blank, empty expression and only then did she press her bare palm to the center of the door. It sucked blood through her skin and burned an intricate sigil in the wood. When the image faded to unscarred wood, she opened the door. The stone steps were deep, built for someone with average Sa’alle height, not her pitiful stature.

Behind her, Cal hissed as they reached the dampeners surrounding the lab. His swallow was loud in the staircase. “I was wondering how anything effective could get done in a lab with so much interference.”

“Indeed. The lab was added in the first century of the family’s existence. The dampeners destroyed the original wards and caused a full collapse of the first building. Regrettably my ancestors survived.”

“I can’t regret anything that led to you.”

“You will change your mind.”

Double durasteel doors waited for them at the bottom. Cass threw them open without fanfare, striding with eyes forward as if the rooms to the right and left would cease to exist if she didn’t acknowledge them. They held nothing that would protect her child. She heard Cal stop, but said nothing to dissuade him from ruining his heart. The main lab was well organized with labelled cupboards and clean equipment so perfectly polished it looked new. One wall had a row of fume hoods with heating and freezing elements. 

Cal howled with so much despair that the Force shuddered with his emotions. Cass ignored it and stepped up to the computers. Copying the drives took a few simple commands. While the machines worked, she packed a pristine, padded case with vials of samples in every form of matter. She knew the one that held her own blood without needing to see the label. A single tear slipped down her cheek. “I made it right,” she whispered.

When she had all of the samples she thought were relevant she lifted the copied drives and shoved them in the deep pockets of her coat. Her boots thundered against the sterile floor as she left the lab. At the exit, she waited for the cleaning droid to roll out and begin its work. It was a short, flat thing shaped like a three-pointed star. It deactivated when she lifted it from the floor. Cass patted its back and balanced it on the case of samples. She stopped at the foot of the stairs, steadfastly looking forward. She closed her eyes and let her emotions drain out until they were a puddle around her feet. Her eyes burned yellow when she opened.

Cal was in the room to her left because of course he was. She walked in and scanned it for changes. The room had no windows and the door disappeared into an illusion behind her. The overhead lights were red and hazy, but more than enough to illuminate the contents: rows of cages shorter than her by some twenty centimeters, though the ceiling stretched down to make them as claustrophobic as possible. The bars were far enough apart for a child-sized wrist to only just squeeze through. While it was as meticulously clean as the lab proper, the floor in front of each cage was scored with tiny nail marks. In the stone.

He knelt in front of the one she knew best, his bare left hand pressed into the scarred floor, his tears pooling in the marks as if they could cement the gaps. Instead of sobbing, he let out a single, anguished note that didn’t even have the decency to echo. Cass set the case on the floor with a click of metal on stone, then coaxed Cal into her arms. His wail broke into ratcheting sobs and he clung to her with a grip that could break bones.

“I’m so sorry.”

“I know, dear one,” she said in a monotone.

He held her tighter, pressed his face into her collarbones as if he could push inside and shove the past out. “I thought- I thought your height was just genetics.”

“I know.”

“Cass. Cass, why? Why did she do this?”

She stroked his hair, though her movements were stiff and mechanical. “She was lost to Dark Side corruption long ago.”

He cried high enough to make her teeth ache. “There are so- so many!” He clenched his teeth until his jaw creaked in warning. “Where are they? What did she do to them?”

A deep sigh broke through her force ennui. “They are at peace now. I was the only one to last more than a few years.”

“It doesn’t make any sense!” He yelled. He jerked out of her grasp and stood, breathing heavy as he stared down at the cages. He threw out his arms and bars of each cage wrenched to the sides, leaving an opening so many years too late. “She needed an heir! Why killed them all?” He spun on her, eyes wet and wild. “She didn’t plan for you to live. Didn’t want it.”

“I know.”

“Cass, why?” He stood on a precipice, Force whirling around him like a storm. The stone trembled under his feet and if he’d been anywhere but the lab, the walls would have bent in to smother his rage. So potent was his power that the visions from his psychometry appeared as faint illusions, too-thin faces pressed against frozen bars and broken nails scrabbling at the floor. Or their own bodies.

From the moment she met Cal, Cass knew she would one day be faced with that choice. Knew that if she let him in, one day he would find the threshold of her character. She had the chance to open the door, to make him truly understand, to make him feel the agony of generations. But she chose to leave him locked on the side where her pain and suffering were senseless horrors. “Let that you can never understand be your closure. A creature such as that woman is unworthy of your understanding.”

He fell to his knees and pulled her into sobbing, crushing embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and suffering through this journey with Cal and Cass. We're finally past the worst of it and ready to branch out into space pirate adventure funtimes.
> 
> Please comment and let me know what you think!
> 
> (Also, if it's any reassurance, Cass' dad was one short motherfucker, but, ah, for the same reason. Let that make it better/worse.)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience with this chapter 🙏 I am still struggling with the information from my doctor some weeks ago. I had a second doctor confirm it yesterday, as well, so as you can imagine things are rather... Yeah.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy the chapter. We're fucking neck deep in spooky sith shit. 👌

The cold had long since sunk into them by the time Cal cried himself dry and Cass pulled him to his feet. He winced as he rubbed the salt tracks off his face. He traced the raw corners of his eyes with fingers glowing with the soft healing light of the Force. Then he brushed them over the thick scar on her cheek not healed by the sap from the Origin Tree. He stared into her eyes, but knew better than to apologize again for everything she’d suffered. “I love you.”

Cass nodded and then bent to retrieve the sample case and cleaning droid. “I have a gift for you. It is a unique model design explicitly for this lab. There is no other droid like it in the galaxy.” She grimaced. “My great grandmother saw to that.”

Delight peeked through the grief on his face. He picked up the flat droid and turned it over in his hands. He tested the weight and shook it, listening for any loose parts. “I’m sure BD will forgive us for leaving him on the ship once I get this guy reprogrammed.” He reached for the case of samples. “Let me carry that.

She handed it over without hesitation. “Between this and the data, I should be able to find a solution less extreme than what I did to myself.” She led him out of the dreary depths, though the manor house’s ambient malignance hit them full force once they left the protected area. “However, there may be another route entirely.”

Cass’ boots clacked without echo as she led him up the main staircase. She looked like something out of a holofilm - the lost heiress returned to her ancestral home and fitting perfectly despite knowing nothing of her blood. If only. Portraits lined the upper hall, their red, painted eyes following their steps. They whispered in the Force, enough of their lives left behind to leave a scrap of their mind instead of only a memory. They questioned Cass’ worthiness and Cal’s blood. They speculated with poisoned words about the contents of the case Cal carried.

The portrait at the end of the hall stretched from nearly floor to ceiling. Its subject was the only man and only figure with marks that covered both sides of his face. Cass’ robes had been made in the same design, though with a modern style. He gazed at her impassively, yellow eyes showing none of the hate that glared from the other frames. In his hand was a pyramid-shaped object with solid silver edges and crystal panels. It hovered in front of the painting, just high enough to make the reach uncomfortable when Cass stretched out her hand. It activated with a flash of purple light.

The hall disappeared as the object took over Cass’ sight. When her vision cleared, she stood in a rich parlor: walls paneled with the same dark jungle wood that decorated the rest of the manor and heavy curtains of red velvet. Her ancestor stood stoic, and with no trace of Sith corruption, in front of a roaring fire. Cal jerked forward and took her hand, the case and droid not brought into the… vision.

“What’s happening?” Cal asked. Though his voice was tight, it held determination, not fear.

Cass said nothing, instead bowing her head to the one that sundered the Sa’alle line so long ago.

“Raise your head, child.” His voice was smooth, washing over her like the most expensive spirits. His eyes were blue, the only real resemblance between them with his dark coloring and square jaw. He stared at Cal, his bushy eyebrows drawn tight and his eyes narrowed. “You brought someone with you. This should not be.”

Cass squeezed Cal’s hand, but kept her face impassive and her tone neutral. “My spouse possesses the gift of psychometry. He brought himself.”

The Sa’alle ancestor stalked up to Cal and walked a tight circle around him, examining him as a manka would prey. Cass suppressed a shiver.  _ There _ was the true resemblance. “He is foolish to engage with an unknown Force artifact.”

Cal swallowed, but neither flinched nor spoke.

“His trust in me is complete.”

The ancestor huffed, then laughed fully as he backed away. He sunk into a leather chair and gestured Cass and Cal to the adjacent couch. Even knowing their minds were in no danger from the artifact, Cass moved with measured, wary steps. She didn’t even know the name of her ancestor, her mother referring to him only with pejoratives or, at best, “The Downfall of the Family.” His easy manner, power in every word and gesture but tamed, was how she imagined her father would act if he’d had an easier life. Loss that had been absent at the time of his death pricked at her heart.

“How long has it been, Cassandra? Or do you still prefer Silence?” He smiled her smile of too many teeth.

Cass’ nostrils flared, but only because she let them. It was a show of annoyance, not fear. “Cassandra. You purpose is to know me. Do not expect me to be banthaed by such knowledge.”

He chuckled and turned to Cal. “Who are you, then?”

Cal looked at Cass for a signal before responding. “Cal Kestis. This is… Like a holocron, but interactive, isn’t it? Enough of you left behind like a personality chip.”

“Quick. Not that I expected anything less from a Sa’alle spouse. Yes, this is an object called a noetikon. They were a popular Jedi teaching tool until we learned how to manipulate the stored personality for our own purposes. Poor little younglings would activate it only to find their precious Jedi master teaching them the Dark Side.” He grinned.

“I am here for the map,” Cass said, uninterested in lingering to chat, even if the family records called this man weak willed and the worst of the blood. “You created this to rejoin the line your sons sundered. I intend to complete the job.”

Her ancestor stared at her with a quiet interest. At length, he said, “You are tenacious, Cassandra, I will give you that, but those much more powerful than you have tried.”

“Because they intended to subdue or subvert Hyal into giving up their claim. I intend to give it to them.” She jerked a hand to her face, though the makeup travelled with them into the vision. “I want to be free.”

The man smiled then, a true, warm smile that transformed him from a Sith and into a simple man with wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. “I’m glad.” He stood. “Come. I will show you the map. However, know that as of yet, you are unable to renounce the line.”

Cass’ hands balled into fists and she bared her teeth. “I killed that woman. I ensured there was no chance she could ever even think to-”

“Shh.” He held up a hand to calm her, but wisely chose not to touch her. “Your mother is dead, yes, and very permanently. However, you lost your connection to the Force at some point. Succession passed on from you.”

“Uncle had a child, then? Before he threw his life away?”

“He removed himself from succession before you did and even if he had not, it would not have passed to him. One of your sisters survived.” He gestured for her to follow. “Come, I will show you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While noetikons are super cool and also very creepy, I didn't make them up. They were in the Jedi Consular story in SWTOR. Including a corrupted one.
> 
> Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think! I swear pirate adventures are coming.

**Author's Note:**

> Check me out:  
> [@duveraun](https://twitter.com/duveraun) (twitter)  
> [@tk-duveraun](https://tk-duveraun.tumblr.com/) (tumblr)
> 
> Please comment and let me know what you think!


End file.
